Saturday, June 10, 2006

They literally want us to keep our mouths shut!

A new fan of my little effort here sent me this message:

I just found your blog. Nice. I have a question that maybe you can answer.

My husband and I recently attended 8th grade graduation at St. Bernard's. I know this parish well as I was married there. As I approached for Communion, which I receive on my tongue, the priest would not give me communion. I continued to look at him and stick my tongue out. Of course, I know that you can receive in the hand or mouth. Feeling stupid and the priest looked so angry, I almost walked away. But I just closed my eyes and he smashed it into my mouth. My husband had the same experience. My parents also had the same experience. We are all members of St. Claire and Fr. Tony has never made us feel unwelcome. At first I felt humiliated, now I'm just mad. Do you think I should write the priest or the Archdiocese? I feel that I need to speak out to someone. Thanks for listening. B. (name withheld by request)

Hers is a challenge many faithful Catholics have faced. I have to admit, I am a communion in the hand type of guy. But where in the world do all these supposedly open-minded, diversity-promoting, ritual is everything pastors get off saying that some classic traditions in the Church are not allowed in "my" parish? Kudos to, I presume, Fr. Tony McCarthy at St. Clare parish in North Lake.

My reply to this lady, and to all in these situations:

Thank you for reading my blog.

I have heard others who encountered the same type of thing with Fr. Drenzek at St. Bernard...he is no Fabian Bruskeiwicz.

As to writing a letter, I do recommend it. But, there is a qualification.

On the positive side, three times in the last few weeks Archbishop Dolan has advised his priests about the doing things by the book.

While I do not think you will be able to get the Archbishop to discipline Fr. Drenzek, but if enough people write with your same concerns, he might at least send out a message that supports your concerns.

Write him at the Archdiocese:

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan P.O. Box 070912 Milwaukee, WI 53207-0912

I hear that he always replies. If he does, please share his response with me.

Good Luck,

Mike

P.S. If anyone else has specific examples of some of the outrageousness going on out there, please do share.

P.P.S. I should have the Auxiliary Bishop Handicapping list re-typed tonight. It makes for interesting reading. It it interesting to note that the good Fr. McCarthy referred to above is not even considered (neither for scorn of for praise) on this Weaklandista list.

4 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Fr Peter is notorious for acting like a 2 yr old temper tantrum when someone wants to receive the most Holy of Holy on your tongue. My wife wrote an email to him once after he made a big deal about it with her, and his response was 'I was concerned about getting lipstick on the Host'...yeah right.

I have written letters to Archbishop Dolan about Fr Peter....if there were more priests out there, they would throw him out, but St Bernards is stuck...too bad really, after all Fr Bruskewitz had a real solid following.